Girls' Night Out: Fumbled Flirtations
by Lara Zed
Summary: Hannah's night out takes an unexpected - and embarrassing - turn when she literally runs into her crush. Second one-shot in a series of three.


Disclaimer: Just having a bit of fun with J. K. Rowling's creations, that's all.

A/N: This is the second one-shot in a series of three that all take place on the same night. The first one is "Girls' Night Out: An Unwelcome Intrusion," and it is a George/Hermione story. This one picks up shortly after where it left off. Huge thanks to my wonderful beta, the talented WeasleyForMe! Hope you enjoy this story. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

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Girls' Night Out: Fumbled Flirtations

In the middle of the packed dance floor of the newly opened Alohamora Club and Lounge, Ginny Weasley came to a startling realization.

"Guys, I think we lost Hermione," she shouted over the music at Luna Lovegood and Hannah Abbott, concern apparent in her tone.

"How did that happen? I could have sworn she was here not a minute ago," said Hannah.

"Maybe she saw a Nargle and followed it out of the club," suggested Luna.

Ginny frowned. "Hermione wouldn't follow anyone out of the club. That's not like her at all. I hope she's okay. Oh, I feel like such a jerk! I don't even know how long she's been missing!"

"She's probably just been separated from us in this crowd," said Hannah reassuringly. "We'll keep an eye out for her, and we'll manoeuvre our way around the dance floor, but let's not jump to conclusions, okay?"

Ginny exhaled deeply. "Okay," she agreed.

The three worked their way around the floor, and Ginny's worrying over their friend's disappearance – an old reflex from the war – was growing more evident, until Luna placed a hand on her shoulder, and leaned over to her.

"You can stop fretting now, if you like," she said.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

Luna gestured in the direction of the stairwell leading up to the lounge area, which was still closed to the public. "Hermione. She's over there, on the stairs with your brother."

Ginny and Hannah followed Luna's gaze, and saw Hermione and George talking. Ginny wondered if her intervention was required, but as she saw Hermione give George a light slap on the arm, she allowed herself to relax somewhat.

"I guess she looks like she's doing okay," said Ginny. "I guess I don't have to hex his other ear off just yet. Maybe we should go check on her to be sure…"

That thought was interrupted as they watched George lean toward Hermione for a kiss. They all saw her arms wrap around him, and his hands slide down to her hips as they moved closer together. Hannah and Ginny blushed deeply at the sight, while Luna calmly looked on with an amused expression.

"It looks like she's doing more than okay," said Hannah, looking away. "I wish I was that okay."

"I guess he's finally wised up," Ginny said to herself. Realizing what Hannah had just said, she did a double take. "Wait, Hannah, you're not interested in George, are you?"

"No! That's not what I meant!" Hannah said quickly.

Luna laughed gaily. "Of course she isn't! How could she be interested in George when she's so completely focused on Neville Longbottom?"

"Luna!" exclaimed Hannah angrily, reddening further.

"Hannah, you told Luna who you have a crush on, but not me?" asked Ginny.

"I didn't tell anyone! And Neville's just a friend, anyway!" insisted Hannah.

"Luna, how did you know?" pressed Ginny.

"She doesn't know anything! He's just a friend!" Hannah repeated.

Luna smiled. "Couldn't you tell? It's entirely in her body language whenever he's around. It's really quite obvious," she said.

Still dancing, Hannah fidgeted with her hands, obviously flustered. "But… how can you know that? I haven't even tried flirting with him or anything! I've hid it as well as I possibly could!"

Ginny pointed a finger at her gleefully. "I thought he was 'just a friend,'" she said.

"The fact that you haven't flirted doesn't mean that you don't reveal so much in body language," Luna explained. "You still blush every time he approaches. You smile widely and focus intently when he talks. You tend to lean slightly toward him, and you…"

"Okay, I get it, I get it," interrupted Hannah.

"So you could tell just from her body language that she is interested in Neville?" asked Ginny, sounding impressed.

"Certainly," affirmed Luna. "That's how I also know that Neville is interested in her."

"What?" Hannah and Ginny exclaimed simultaneously.

Luna leaned her head to one side. "Don't tell me that you couldn't see that, either," she said simply.

"You're wrong," said Hannah. "You can't possibly know all these things from body language alone. There's no way that Neville likes me like that. He's never flirted with me, or asked me out, or anything."

"But neither have you, and you still like him very much," Luna pointed out.

"I… uh…" Hannah flummoxed, unable to find an argument to combat Luna's point.

"Why not see for yourself?" suggested Ginny.

"How?" scowled Hannah.

Ginny pointed over Hannah's shoulder. "He's right over there," she stated.

Hannah's eyes widened. "_What?_ You're having me on," she said, panic-stricken.

"She's not," Luna confirmed. "He's just a few feet away, standing at the bar."

"Oh my gosh, I wasn't expecting this," she stammered. "I wasn't expecting to see him tonight, and I've got to be a mess by now. We've been dancing for hours, I bet I'm all sweaty, and my hair's a mess…"

"Everyone here is sweaty from dancing. It's dark. He won't notice, trust me," interjected Ginny.

"But my hair…" Hannah started to protest.

"Looks all tousled and sexy. Seriously, you look fantastic. It couldn't be better timing," said Ginny.

"Yes, there is no need whatsoever to feel insecure about your appearance. Isn't that your favourite dress that you're wearing?" added Luna, gesturing at the tight turquoise shift she had on.

"Well, yes, I suppose…" Hannah started. She quickly glanced over her shoulder at Neville, and turned back to her friends. "You won't mind?"

"Ha!" laughed Ginny. "We'll mind if you miss your chance to chat him up _now_, after we spent all that time doing your hair and makeup earlier. Now go!" Ginny took Hannah by the shoulders and spun her around in Neville's direction.

Luna patted Hannah's shoulder. "Do not worry, you look as radiant as a Heliopath. Good luck!" she assured her.

Ginny gave Hannah a shove toward Neville. It was fortunate for Hannah that there was a fairly clear path toward him, and the force of Ginny's push didn't cause her to bump into anyone. It was unfortunate, however, that someone had placed their handbag on the floor, and Hannah tripped over it, almost falling directly head first into Neville. He saw her just in time, and managed to catch her as her feet went completely out from under her.

"Oh, hello, Hannah!" said Neville brightly and naturally, though loudly to compensate for the music playing. "I didn't know you'd be here tonight!"

Hannah used Neville's steady grip to help herself to her feet, mentally cursing Ginny now. She wondered if she should apologize for falling straight into him, but as he had not addressed it, she decided against it.

"Er, hello," she said, straightening her dress. "Seems like a very good opening night."

Neville looked around. "Yeah, it does. Lee's done really well for himself." He turned back to her. "Are you here on your own tonight?"

"Yes. I mean, no! I mean, um…" Mentally scolding herself for her ineptness, Hannah started again. "I came here with Hermione, Ginny, and Luna."

"Oh, cool! I haven't seen them in a while either. Are they on their way over here, too?" asked Neville.

"No, I don't think so. We're all kind of… um, we're just mingling right now," she answered.

"Well, thanks for coming over here to mingle with me," he said, smiling.

Hannah smiled back, then realized that several seconds had passed without her responding. "Oh, uh, you're… you're welcome?"

"You look very pretty tonight, by the way," Neville added.

Hannah's cheeks went pink. "Thank you. So do you. I mean, you look… that is… you look nice, too," she finally managed, her face now completely red.

Neville chuckled, and blushed slightly. "Thanks. Can I, um, get you a drink, or something?"

Hannah took a deep breath to try to recompose herself. "A drink would be nice, thank you," she answered.

With some degree of difficulty, Neville finally managed to get the bartender's attention. "Could I please get a Gillywater and vodka, please, and for my friend…" he turned to look at Hannah.

Hannah's eyes widened. "Um, the same actually," she said.

"Really? I don't know anyone who orders that," Neville said with a smile.

"Really. That's my usual cocktail," she affirmed.

"How about that," he said quietly, and chuckled to himself.

As the bartender turned away from them to prepare their drinks, Hannah found herself struggling to make small talk. She felt ridiculous, standing there silently, knowing that previous encounters with Neville had never caused her to clam up in such a way. Considering the possibility that her sudden case of nerves was largely due to her interest in Neville being brought out in the open and being quite literally shoved into a one-on-one interaction with him, she inwardly cursed Ginny and Luna. She then realized that following this line of thought was contributing to a longer silence, and she brought her attentions back to Neville, smiling brightly at him.

Neville paid for their drinks, and passed a cocktail to Hannah. He attempted to clink glasses with her, but his aim was slightly off and he only managed to succeed in spilling part of his drink on her.

He reddened. "Oh god, I'm so sorry," he said. He grabbed some napkins from the bar, and gestured toward helping her dry off, then stopped and handed the napkins to her.

Hannah patted her chest with the napkins. "It's okay. Sorry about that," she said.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault," insisted Neville.

As the other patrons of the club pushed their way to the bar around Neville and Hannah, jostling their elbows, they both struggled to keep a hold of their drinks. "I think it's getting just a bit too crowded here," said Hannah.

"It looks like there's a free table in the corner," motioned Neville. "Do you want to move over there?"

"Good idea," she said.

After pushing their way through the masses with more than a small degree of difficulty, they rested the remnants of the drinks on the corner table.

"So how's work?" Neville asked.

"Oh, same old same old. You know Gringotts; things have been really busy in my department as we've been revamping some of the bookkeeping systems."

"I've noticed I haven't seen you around so much for a while."

Hannah nodded while taking a sip of her drink. "Yeah, they've had me doing some pretty crazy overtime. It took quite a bit of preparing all week to come out tonight. But that's the way it is; it's not so easy to come by good Arithmantists, so they've had to work us practically around the clock. How about you?"

"It's been good. I don't think I've been as busy as you've been, but I don't do anything all that interesting. From most people's perspectives, I mean," said Neville.

"You shouldn't say that! Medical Herbology is very important!" said Hannah.

"Yeah, but most people switch off when I start talking about it."

"You forget you're talking to the person who was second only to you in Herbology at school?" she asked pointedly, with a smile on her face.

Neville grinned. "Fair point. Well, if you really are interested, you should stop by the lab sometime. We're working on improving the cure for dragon pox. Do you know it's been over four hundred years since that's been worked on? Yes, the cure works, but I'm quite certain we can make it faster, and less… unpleasant."

"That sounds great! I'd love to check that out," she said.

"And, uh, how's Ernie doing?" asked Neville, diverting his eyes.

Hannah took a deep breath. "Well, we broke up a couple of months ago."

"What?" Neville asked, clearly surprised. "How did I not hear about this?"

"Well, I guess you and I have been pretty busy and haven't seen a lot of each other since then, and when we did, I suppose you never asked about him," she answered.

"Wow. I'm so sorry. I should have… I don't know, been there for you? Been more sensitive?" he said.

Hannah shrugged. "It's all right. Really. I wouldn't have wanted to talk about him anyway."

"Huh. Yeah."

They both sat silently for a moment, the blaring music only somewhat helping to distract from the sudden halt in conversation.

"So, would saying 'that was awkward' make this situation more or less awkward?" Neville asked, breaking their silence.

Hannah laughed. "I'm not sure. You could try it, and we'll find out."

"Well, that was awkward," said Neville.

Neither of them knew how to follow that up, and they lapsed back into a brief hush before breaking it together.

"More awkward," they both confirmed simultaneously, and started laughing.

"Now we know. Sorry about that. I mean, about bringing up the subject of Ernie," said Neville.

Hannah shook her head. "No need, really. We weren't together that long. And I found out he was having it off with Marietta Edgecombe behind my back, so I ended things immediately."

"What? That's horrible!"

"She can keep him," said Hannah flatly. "I don't think he was what I was looking for, anyway."

"And, uh, what are you looking for?" Neville asked, the darkness of the club hiding the red flush creeping up his neck.

"Oh, just… I don't know. Someone nice, someone who I get along with and makes me laugh, someone who has similar interests to me, someone…" she suddenly stopped talking, becoming more aware of the line of conversation.

"Someone?" he prompted.

"Someone who I have good conversations with. Someone who will just treat me right, I guess. That's the most important thing," she finished, not remembering ever having felt quite so nervous before.

"Right," agreed Neville.

"How about you? Anyone special in your life right now?" Hannah managed to say, just barely squeaking it out.

"What's that? Couldn't quite hear you over the music that time," said Neville.

"Do you have anyone special in your life right now?" she repeated, but only a little bit louder.

"Sorry, one more time?" he asked

"HAVE YOU GOT A GIRLFRIEND?" Hannah practically shouted, startling herself and even some of the nearby club-goers. Immediately realizing how embarrassing she sounded, she jumped up from their table and ran into the throng of dancers, trying to find Luna, Ginny, Hermione, anyone she could go to for comfort. Unable to find her friends amongst the crowd, she ran to the toilets, but found them fully occupied. Finally, she rushed out of the club entirely, leaned against a wall outside and burst into tears.

Only about a minute later, Neville appeared beside her.

"Oi, what was that about?" he asked.

"What?" asked Hannah, panicked, trying to hastily wipe her tears away and play off her behaviour as anything but weird.

"Why did I just have to chase you all over the club and outside? Why are you suddenly acting like you don't want to be anywhere near me?" he asked.

"Because I'm doing this all wrong!" she howled, tears starting afresh.

"What are you doing wrong?"

"This! This whole… flirting thing! I can't do it to save my life!" insisted Hannah.

"You were trying to flirt with me?" asked Neville.

"See! Exactly! You couldn't even tell, and I've just made a complete tit of myself, and I just want to go home!" she bawled, turning away from him.

"Hey, come on," he said, taking her by the shoulders and gently turning her to face him again. "Don't be like that. It's not bad at all. It's not as though I was doing any better, right?"

"Any better at what?" Hannah sniffed.

"At flirting with you," answered Neville.

Hannah wiped her eyes. "You were flirting with me?"

Neville laughed. "There, see? We're both awful at this. I spilled my drink on you, for Merlin's sake. You couldn't do any worse than that."

"Are you joking?" said Hannah. "I started out by tripping and falling right into you! That was pretty bad."

He shrugged. "Maybe I didn't mind that in the slightest," he said, a cheeky grin forming on his face.

"Oh, very smooth!" she laughed. "You seem to be getting better at this flirting thing pretty quickly."

"Improvement with practice, maybe?" he asked, trying to lean back against the wall of the club, misjudging the distance and hitting the wall with a slight thud as he tried to regain his footing. They both started laughing. "All right, maybe I still need quite a bit more practice," he conceded.

Hannah slowly started to recover from her laughter, and smiled at Neville. "Maybe a little," she agreed.

"So where do you want to proceed from here?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, should I ask you out, or have you taken that as a given at this point?"

"I wouldn't take anything as a given," said Hannah. "For all I know, you could be spilling drinks on different girls every night."

"I wouldn't do that," said Neville. "I promise, you are the only girl that I'm interested in spilling my drinks on."

"I know," she said, leaning against the wall beside him.

"Do you want to go back inside?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Hannah. "I can hear you better out here."

Neville edged a little closer toward her. "Do you want to go out sometime?"

"Thought you'd never ask," she smiled.

"Do you think that Ginny, Hermione, and Luna will mind if I walk you home tonight?" he asked.

"I think it'll be okay. I'm just going to find them and let them know where I am," she said, heading back toward the club entrance.

"Sure. But try to ignore any other offers you might get when you're in there, okay? Seems almost like a meat market on that dance floor," said Neville.

"You've got nothing to worry about," assured Hannah. "After all the fun we had flirting with each other? How could I want to do that with anyone else?"

They grinned at each other, and she flounced into the club to find her friends as quickly as possible. After all their encouragement, she was sure they wouldn't be too annoyed. In fact, she'd have to remember to let Ginny push her around more often. It seemed to get results.


End file.
